Adding Effects

Depending on the kind of documents you create, you may need to use one or two of the effects available in the Font dialog boxsuperscript and subscript, perhapsall the time. Other more specialized ones, such as emboss and engrave, you may never need, but just in case, Word puts them at your disposal.

To apply text effects, follow these steps:

1. Select the text to which you want to apply an effect.

2. Choose Format, Font or press Ctrl+D to display the Font dialog box.

3. Click the Font tab if it isn't already in front.

4. Mark the desired check boxes under Effects (refer to Figure 6.3). You can see what an effect does by marking its check box and looking at the Preview area at the bottom of the dialog box.

5. When you're done, click OK .

To remove any of these effects, select the text to which the effect is applied, choose Format, Font, and clear the appropriate check box under Effects.

One other effect you can apply to your text is animation. When you animate your text, it "comes alive " with neon lights, shimmers, or sparkles. This feature was probably designed with the junior high school set in mind, but even sober-minded adults may find it a good distraction during tax time. Note that animation can't be appreciated unless your readers view the document onscreen. To try it out, select some text, choose Format, Font, and click the Text Effects tab. Click a few options in the Animations list to see what they look like. When you find one that you like, click OK. (To later remove animation, select the text, display the Text Effects tab of the Font dialog box, choose None, and click OK.)

The Hidden option hides the selected text both onscreen and in the printed document. Word closes up the text around the hidden text so that you can't tell it's there unless you click the Show/Hide button in the Standard toolbar. When you turn on Show/Hide , hidden text appears with a dotted line underneath it. This feature comes in handy in some documents. You could use it to hide confidential parts of a report before printing it, for example. (If you want to see hidden text even when the Show/Hide button is turned off, choose Tools, Options. In the Options dialog box, click the View tab, mark the Hidden Text check box, and click OK.)

Some of the effects have convenient keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can select the text and then press Ctrl+Shift+A for all caps, Ctrl+Shift+K for small caps, Ctrl+equal sign for subscript, Ctrl+Shift+plus sign for superscript.